Sharon Creech

Sharon Creech (born July 29, 1945) is an American writer of children's novels. She was the first American winner of the Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the first person to win both the American Newbery Medal and the British Carnegie.

Biography

Sharon Creech was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, where she grew up with her parents (Ann and Arvel), one sister (Sandy), and three brothers (Dennis, Doug and Tom). She often used to visit her cousins in Quincy, Lewis County, Kentucky, which has found its way into many of her books as fictional Bybanks, Kentucky. Bybanks appears in ''Walk Two Moons'', ''Chasing Redbird,'' and ''Bloomability'' and there is an allusion to Bybanks in '' The Wanderer''.

At college in the U.S. she became intrigued by story-telling after taking literature and writing courses, and she later became a teacher of secondary school English and Writing in England and Switzerland. Her first children's novel ''Absolutely Normal Chaos'' was published only in the U.K., by Macmillan Children's Books in 1990. Called "comedy about contemporary teen life" by '' Kirkus Reviews'', it featured a 13-year-old girl's "complete and unabridged journal for English class".
Her first book published in the U.S. was ''Walk Two Moons'' (1994), which won the American Newbery Medal in 1995. Later that year, ''Absolutely Normal Chaos'' was first published in the U.S. by HarperCollins —set in her hometown Euclid, Ohio.

Creech returned to the U.S. in 1998 after 18 years abroad. She is married to Lyle Rigg, a headmaster in New Jersey, and has two grown children, Rob and Karin.

Books

She has written both novels and picture books. She often embeds serious topics into her stories, including such themes as independence, trust, childhood, adulthood, and death, often using humour to soften them.

Books such as '' Love That Dog'' and ''Heartbeat'' were written in verse, whereas other books like ''Ruby Holler'' and ''Walk Two Moons'' are in a narrative style.

''Bloomability'' (1998) features an American girl at a boarding school in Switzerland. The setting was inspired by The American School In Switzerland, where Creech taught English.

She returned to the fictional school exercise in ''Love That Dog'' (Harper Collins and Bloomsbury, 2001), the blank verse diary of "Jack, a reluctant student, horesists poetry assignments from his teacher, Miss Stretchberry." It was a commended runner-up for the British Carnegie Medal.

Awards

In 1995, ''Walk Two Moons'' won the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association, recognizing the year's best children's book by an American author. In the U.K., it won the annual Children's Book Award for long novels, voted by children, and the Reading Association Award. In 1997, it also won the Literaturhaus Award, Austria, and the Young Adult Sequoyah Award, Oklahoma, USA .

''Bloomability'' won the IRA/CBC Children's Choices award in 1999.

'' The Wanderer'' won the Parents' Choice Award, USA, in 2000, and it was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal. It was one of eight books on the Carnegie Medal shortlist in the U.K.

Creech and ''Love That Dog'' were a commended runner-up for the 2001 Carnegie Medal and she won the 2002 Medal from the British librarians, recognizing ''Ruby Holler'' as the year's best children's book published in the U.K.

Works

* 1990 ''The Recital'', novel for adults, published as Sharon RiggSharon Creech: Selected Bibliography
at Ohio reading Road Trip
* 1991 ''Nickel Malley'', novel for adults, published as Sharon Rigg
* 1992 ''The Center of the Universe: Waiting for the Girl'', play
* 1990 ''Absolutely Normal Chaos''
* 1994 ''Walk Two Moons''
* 1996 ''Pleasing the Ghost''
* 1997 ''Chasing Redbird''
* 1998 ''Bloomability''
* 2000 ''Fishing in the Air''
* 2000 '' The Wanderer''
* 2001 '' Love That Dog''
* 2001 ''A Fine, Fine School''
* 2002 ''Ruby Holler''
* 2003 ''Granny Torrelli Makes Soup''
* 2004 '' Heartbeat''
* 2005 '' Replay''
* 2006 ''Who's That Baby''
* 2007 ''The Castle Corona'' (Illustrated by David Diaz)
* 2008 ''Hate That Cat''
* 2009 ''The Unfinished Angel''
* 2012 ''The Great Unexpected''
* 2013 ''The Boy on the Porch''
* 2016 ''Moo''
* 2018 ''Saving Winslow''

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Creech, Sharon
American children's writers
Carnegie Medal in Literature winners
Newbery Honor winners
Newbery Medal winners
Hiram College alumni
People from South Euclid, Ohio
Writers from Ohio
Writers from New Jersey
1945 births
Living people